Making Sense of Change, Making do with Access, Making it Work

Making sense of Change

Marketing isn't getting the market's message.Doc Searls -- Earth to Marketers: This is the market speaking to you. It’s saying the personalized advertising glass is more than 3/4ths empty. Calling it any % full is delusional.

New FCC chairman tells wireless carriers to unlock cell phones.Ars Technica -- excerpted from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler letter to Steve Largent, CEO of the trade group that represents cellular carriers: The Commission has indicated that any such policy must contain five parts: (a) provide a clear, concise, and readily accessible policy on unlocking; (b) unlock mobile wireless devices for customers, former customers, and legitimate owners when the applicable service contract, installment plan, or ETF [early termination fee] has been fulfilled; (c) affirmatively notify customers when their devices are eligible for unlocking and/or automatically unlock devices when eligible, without an additional fee; (d) process unlocking requests or provide an explanation of denial within two business days; and (e) unlock devices for military personnel upon deployment. It appears that CTIA and the FCC are in agreement on all but the third item regarding consumer notification. Absent the consumer's right to be informed about unlocking eligibility, any voluntary program would be a hollow shell.

Making do with Access

The 90% solution. Robin Sloane: The experience of snagging a bike, riding it for five minutes, then leaving it behind forever is magical. [...]It turns out that simply having a bike, any kind of bike, gets you 90% of the pleasure. You don’t need much; two wheels and a seat.

Q&A: Wired magazine founder Kevin Kelly. Access: I’m not using the word “technology” like most people do, which is to describe something that was invented after they were born. We think of the iPhone as technology — but of course, technology is much broader. It’s the concrete the Romans invented. It’s the steel the Chinese invented. It’s the materials of the Industrial Revolution. I would even include intangible things that we have invented with our minds, like the calendar, libraries, writing.

Making it Work

Two examples of stories where the comment thread is more than just comment theater and contains alternative suggestions and informed thinking. Is there an app for turning comments into action?

Out of Europe's long Job Crisis, Voices of the Young. NYT: There is some evidence that Europe's economies are starting to recover, but there is also growing concern that members of this generation may never recapture the opportunities they have lost. Their stories are about hardship, but also about creative adaptation and in some cases unexpected opportunity.

You are so Self-Controlling. NYT: “The timing of real-world events is not always so predictable,” he and Mr. McGuire write. “Decision makers routinely wait for buses, job offers, weight loss and other outcomes characterized by significant temporal uncertainty.” Sometimes everything comes just when we expect it to, but sometimes even a usually punctual bus breaks down or an all-but-certain job offer falls through.

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effects on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.